The world is increasingly becoming more dependent on digital technology and computer systems as the day goes by. As a result of the deep penetration of technology in Nigeria, several tech startups abound in the agricultural, educational, healthcare, banking and finance, e-commerce, and transportation sectors of Nigeria’s economy. These startups are utilizing digital technologies and innovation to provide ingenious solutions to different problems in Nigerian communities.
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Despite the rapid growth in Nigeria’s technology sector, only very few women have the opportunity to participate as founders/owners or employees of tech businesses. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, women constitute only 30 percent of professionals in the tech sector. Reports have also revealed that only 12 percent of global fintech founders and co-founders were women, and only six percent of fintech had female chief executive officers (CEOs).
The Nigerian tech ecosystem is predominantly male, and only a few girls and women are involved actively in the sector. This gender discrepancy in the Nigerian tech space is a reflection of the African and global realities of women all over the world. Although not having a fair share in the tech industry, women are making a genuine impact in Nigeria and globally. Even with the differences in accessing opportunities, women are creating innovations and fostering change through technology in their communities. Things are gradually changing as younger women are now showing interest in the sector.
Women creators of technology or innovators are very minimal, but they are eager to partner with the menfolk in shaping the growth of technology in Nigeria. By recent events, women are announcing their active participation as co-creators of technology and innovation. Although outnumbered in the tech sector, a host of young and enthusiastic women are working silently to impact the industry with a new wave of creativity, innovation, and leadership as well as creating technologies and innovation to help solve problems peculiar to their gender, and the entire society.
Bridging the gap between male and female participation in the technology sector remains a huge challenge for the stakeholders. This is why Women in Technology in Nigeria (WITIN) was created as one of the World’s Largest and Leading communities of Women in Tech. WITIN is a registered non-profit organization and association, dedicated to the advancement of women and girls by fostering opportunities in tech, promoting tech leadership, digital skills, and entrepreneurship initiatives, and advocating gender equity reforms for women and girls. WITIN also showcases the amazing women in the tech ecosystem as role models for girls while working closely with educators to bridge the gap in STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Maths).
Nigerian women have a crucial role to play in Nigeria’s tech industry. The diversity they bring serves as an enormous improvement to the tech ecosystem and the digital economy.
In celebration of the 2022 International Day of Women, here are notable women in the Nigerian tech space.
Adaora Nwodo
Businessday NG
A software engineer currently building Mixed Reality on the Cloud. She created adorahack.com in 2018 and a YouTube channel named Adorahack in 2019 to share articles on software engineering, productivity and career growth, tech, and her experience as a software engineer. She is the co-founder of unStack Africa, an open source-based conference for tech talents in Africa. She has won the Young CISO Network Excellence in Disruptive Technology, Cloud and Embedded Device Security Award for her work in building and advocating for Disruptive Technology on the Cloud. In October 2021, she released her first book, “Cloud Engineering for Beginners,” which introduces people to the concept of cloud computing, viable career paths in cloud engineering, and how to navigate a cloud engineering career. She is also a published author, public speaker, and tech content creator.
Yanmo Omorogbe
conference.nbasbl
Co-founder and chief operating officer of Bamboo. She leads growth and operation at bamboo which is a digital investment platform that gives Nigerians real-time access to buy, sell or hold assets traded on the US stock exchange from their mobile phones or computers. Omorogbe is the operational backbone of a business turning ordinary Nigerians into global investors. She is an alumna of Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London, and has served previously as an assistant to the Nigerian Minister of Power, Works, and Housing. She was also part of the Transaction and Asset Management teams at African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), one of Africa’s largest infrastructure private equity fund managers.
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Damilola Odufuwa
Disha
A tech executive and women’s rights advocate whose work cuts across cryptocurrency, communications, and women’s rights. She currently leads Public Relations and Communications for Africa at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. She is the co-founder and CEO of Backdrop, an app and social network that lets people find and share beautiful spaces worldwide. She is also the co-founder of the Feminist Coalition, an advocacy group made up of young Nigerian feminists championing equality for women in Nigerian society, with a core focus on education, financial freedom, and representation of women in public office. In recognition of her work, she has been listed as one of the Bloomberg50, a record of people changing the global business landscape, one of the “12 Women Leaders That Changed The World In 2020” by Vogue, and one of the TIME100 Next 2021. As a result of her work in the blockchain industry, she was also listed as one of “Six Women At The Forefront Of West Africa’s Tech Boom” by Vogue and one of the “Rising Women In Crypto” by Fintech Times and Wirex.
Ibukun Akinola
The SOL Tribe
An entrepreneur and finance leader with over seven years of experience in the Nigerian tech space. She leads the customer finance team at Piggyvest, one of Africa’s foremost financial technology companies. She oversees support, compliance, dispute resolution, and processor partnerships. In 2014, she started PushCV with her cofounders. PushCV is an online recruitment platform that bridges the gap between job seekers and employers of labour. Other products in their catalogue include 500Dishes, 99Staff, and Frontdesk. ng. Ibukun is an advocate for advancing gender equality and women’s rights.
Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti
The Guardian NG
Founder and CEO of Herconomy, a female-focused fintech startup dedicated to creating financial resources for women. Herconomy is Nigeria’s first digital platform of female entrepreneurs and professionals focusing on empowering women and connecting women to each other and opportunities, such as grants, fellowships, scholarships, jobs, and much more. She is also an author, entrepreneur, and young global leader with over 10 years of management and leadership experience working in the fashion, marketing, and manufacturing, and, most recently, the tech industry. She was recently appointed as a Youth Advisory Group Member for Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE), a global coalition formed by the World Bank to provide catalytic support to employment and productive work for 150 million youths by 2030. She was also named a Peace Scholar by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is also part of the Africa Startup Initiative (ASIP) Accelerator Programme and the first recruitment partner in Nigeria with Amazon. In 2019, she was listed as one of the 52 women who made an impact.
Folayemi Agusto
Tech Women Lagos
CEO and a co-founder of tix. Africa, a self-service ticketing platform for event organizers to list, manage, and collect payment for live and virtual events. The platform makes it easy for organizers to create and monetize live or virtual events, create customizable event pages, and secure payment collection via Paystack. It also gives guests a seamless way to book and attend live occasions. The team is working on developing a native virtual meeting space for its users. She is a self-taught user interface designer, a passionate event organizer, and co-founder of Eat Drink Lagos. The startup that started as a food blog has grown into the go-to bible for Lagos occupants and visitors deciding where to eat and drink.
Damilola Olokesusi
Techpoint Africa
Co-founder and CEO of Nigeria’s leading transport-driven transportation startup, Shuttlers. The Shuttlers platform enables professionals and organizations to share rides in decent buses to and from work. With Shuttlers, users book trips along fixed routes at 60-80 percent lower rates than other ride-hailing services. She is the recipient of “Forbes30under30 (2019) for Technology”, and was selected by the UK government for a technology exchange in 2020. She has garnered accolades, such as The Digital & Tech Award at the Women in Africa Contest in Morocco in 2017 and the Award for the Best Idea at the Aso Villa Demo Day. Under her leadership, Shuttlers raised a $1.6 million seed funding, announcing plans to expand into more African metropolitan cities. In 2020, she launched an initiative called She Moves Shuttles, an all-female shuttle service (sponsored by Ford Motors Company) that has impacted 600+ female professionals by turning their commute time to learning time. Damilola is poised to continue to lead innovation in the technology and transportation sectors and other sectors in Nigeria and around the world.
Sholape Akinpelu
National Financial Educators Council
She is a certified financial education instructor and a member of the Personal Finance Speakers Association (USA). Solape is the founder and CEO of HerVest, a women-focused and inclusive fintech platform for the underserved and excluded women in Africa. HerVest enables women to save, impact investments, and credit, particularly for smallholder women farmers in Nigeria. As a financial feminist, Solape actively supports sustainable development goals 5 and 10. She believes in achieving gender equality and reducing inequality through financial literacy, technology, and access to capital. In September 2021, HerVest was chosen from thousands of applicants to present at the world’s number one startup launch competition at TechCrunch Disrupt. Besides, HerVest is the only Nigerian startup selected to pitch alongside 19 other global stars. Solape is the Nigeria chapter director of Women in Tech Global, an international organization with a double mission to close the gender gap and help women embrace technology. Solape has also worked in various Nigerian’s top financial brands, including Skye Bank, Sterling Bank, Wema Bank, Leadway Assurance, and FCMB, before joining Meristem, a leading investment firm, as the head of corporate and marketing communications.
Tope Omotolani
Co-founder and CEO of Crowdyvest, an impact-driven community focused on creating interdependence between individuals and businesses. Under her leadership, Crowdyvest has raised over $35 million through savings and investment for multiple businesses from a community of over 100,000 members in over a year. She is also one of the co-founders of Farmcrowdy, Nigeria’s First Digital Agricultural Platform that launched in November 2016. Her first role was Product Development & Sales, and in four months, she grew to become the VP of operations, and in one year, she became the COO. As Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Farmcrowdy, she coordinated all farm operations across over 14 states with over 25,000 farmers. In 2019, she became the managing director of Crowdyvest, formerly a sister company to Farmcrowdy, before being bought over by investors led by Temitope in March 2021. Tope is listed as one of the “Top Female Founders in Africa” who raised $2.5 million for Farmcrowdy. She won the “Emerging Fintech CEO of the year” award at the Annual Global Business Outlook Awards 2021.
Abiola Eniola Aminu
Techpoint Africa
She is a Product Designer at Flutterwave. Her careers journey began in 2017 when she received an email from Stutern to learn UX design for three months. Later in 2018, she interned at Swifta Systems as a UI/UX Designer. Since towing the UI/UX career path, Eniola has worked across different organizations like Cowrywise, Tuteria, and Yellowcard.
Seun Runsewe
All News NG
She is the VP of Growth at Softcom. Seun ventured into the tech space to help grow businesses focused on improving payments and expanding Nigeria’s digital economy( Fintech). Before Softcom, Seun was the Director of Product at Opay and has also worked at Paystack and KPMG Nigeria. She became the youngest bank CEO in 2018 when she built and launched the beta version of Switch by Sterling Bank. The switch is a financial platform that offers Nigerians in the diaspora access to financial perks like; multi-currency, savings, and investments.
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